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"I've had major surgeries so I was nervous about going in," she says. "But the staff explained everything very carefully, so I felt very prepared and comfortable. The only part I wasn't looking forward to was the adjustments after waking up."
During eye muscle surgery, which is performed under general anesthesia, the eye muscle or muscles causing the misalignment are separated from the eye and reattached to a new position. In most adults, adjustable sutures are used that allow surgeons to make further adjustments to the eye if needed after the patient wakes up.
"The adjustments turned out to be very simple," says Barlow. "My eye was numb. The procedure was uncomfortable, but it was very quick."
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She explains that at the time she wasn't interested in having more surgery and, after surviving a major car accident, she felt she should be grateful for the way everything turned out. Even though she was experiencing double vision - a debilitating sign of strabismus in adults - Heather felt she could live with the problem. Yet slowly, she became very self-conscious about the way she looked.